Chinese vendors sell pork at their stalls in a market in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, in June. Photo: IC

China will resume importing meat from Canada after a four-month suspension, the latest measure to expand supplies as domestic pork prices rocket because of African swine fever (ASF).

"Canadian pork and beef exports to China will resume," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted on Wednesday.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed the news on Wednesday. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said at a regular press briefing that China has recently agreed to resume imports after making sure meat exports from Canada are safe.

In June, China suspended meat imports from Canada after counterfeit export certificates were discovered.

Resuming imports could ease pork supplies in the Chinese market to some extent, given the recent tightness due to ASF, Jiao Shanwei, editor-in-chief of grain news website cngrain.com, told the Global Times.

"However, Canada is not the main source of China's meat imports and China has also been expanding imports from a variety of countries," Jiao said.

Resuming meat imports from Canada comes as a timely measure. Pork prices in China have soared following the culling of more than 1 million live pigs as of mid-October due to ASF.

In recent months, China has expanded meat imports to supplement domestic supplies. Brazilian Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina Dias tweeted on Monday that China has approved seven meatpacking plants for the export of pork innards, Reuters reported.

On October 26, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce indicated in a statement that China and the US have reached a consensus on China lifting a ban on poultry imports from the US.

In the first three quarters of the year, China imported about 1.33 million tons of pork, up 43.6 percent year-on-year, Chinese customs data showed.

However, increasing imports won't do much to increase domestic pork supplies, said Wang Zuli, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Pork imports only account for about 4 percent of domestic consumption, Wang said.
Newspaper headline: Meat imports expand to counter tight domestic pork supply amid ASF